Two Good Ones

TWO GOOD ONES A MTB’ers delight by TONY GAZLEY T here is no better way of getting around our wonderful backcountry than by walking. You can go almost anywhere you want, there is nearly always time to slow down and look around, and places to put up the tent you are carrying for a comfy night.

Well—mostly true. Because just sometimes there may be a vehicle track or easy trail and then it is nice to be able to cover long distances and cover them fast and light—really fast and really light. And so it was with D’Urville Island and the St James cycleway.

Paul and I met at French Pass and caught the water taxi to Kapowai Bay on D’Urville Island late on a fine and calm Saturday morning. We had just about enough food for three days, our bikes and cycling gear and very little else. For starters it was an easy enough climb up the well graded gravel road from the jetty to the Community Centre on top of the main ridge at an altitude of about 450 metres with great views between the trees of the outer sounds as we went by.

The Centre is a spacious hexagonal log building with a small bunkroom and is used by the 50 locals on the island for social events but also rented out to visitors. We moved in, eventually figured out how to turn on the pump for the water, had a cup of tea and a biscuit then set off for our first real look around. We had decided to take the road to Greville Harbour where DOC had been doing some work to make the area MTB user-friendly. And the road turned out to be all you could want for easy MTB’ing. A smooth surface often softened by fallen beech tree leaves—just perfect for fast riding. And for starters all slightly downhill.

D’Urville Island has no possums or goats (although there are some deer) and the bush shows it. Trees such as Olearia that are normally devastated by munching possums were covered in masses of white flowers, and there was a vibrant understory of young plants. The sun flashed brightly through the canopy as we ripped along in the highest chain-ring, and in no time we emerged out of the forest into the grassed area that once had been farmed but now has been retired and left to revert to native bush.

Far below us was a delightful-looking long curved sandy beach and beyond that the clear blue waters of Tasman Bay and then faintly visible on the horizon the peaks of the Mt Arthur Range. Behind the beach there were dunes that had been blown inland by the prevailing westerlies and which had dammed a river to create a large lagoon. There were a few derelict looking buildings dotted about which we assumed would once have been farm houses.

The road was rougher and steeper from here down to the coast but still no real problems if some care was taken. We passed a sign pointing to the ranger’s house but there was no ranger and no house either—only a concrete slab and a chimney. Clearly it had recently either burned down or been demolished. Then on around the lagoon riding partly on a formed but badly overgrown track and partly in the shallow water on the edge of the sandy beach. We passed a cosy campsite set up by DOC complete with wind shelters in the grass at the back of the beach which seemed like a nice place to come back to and stay one day.

We hoped to get to the farthest end of the beach so we pushed our bikes through the maram grass onto the old airfield at the back of the dunes and raced each other to the end of the dusty runway. But the tracks leading on from here had long overgrown and we gave the idea away and instead headed back to the lagoon and then around to the road back up the hill.

Paul has always been faster uphill than me and anyway I wanted some pictures so we headed back to our lodgings each at our own speed. By the time I arrived the woodburner was blazing and tea nearly ready.

The weather forecast for the night and next morning was for rain and strong winds. And we got plenty of them both. So we slept late as the wind roared over the roof, the trees whipped about and the rain sheeted past the windows. But by mid-afternoon the wind had dropped just a little and instead of rain there was just a dense misty drizzle. We were not going to wait any longer so headed off towards the northern end of the island and the locked gate to ranch. at Putaki. Once again the riding was fast and easy—anyway at least while we were in the bush.

But soon we were in the ultra-mafic belt—a continuation of the rock strata from the Red Hills area of Nelson and easily recognised by the strange stunted vegetation which is all that is able to grow on it. Here we were out of the shelter of the bush and the wind was howling across the ridge tops. Paul was blown off the Water-taxi terminal and waiting lounge D’Urville Island Outer Sounds from the road to the community centre Dense Olearia flowers alongside the road

Retired farmland at Greville Harbour The handy Community Centre Heading to the north end of the island on a misty afternoon Sand dunes and lagoon at Greville Harbour road twice—once into a fence and once into a deep ditch. To avoid any more dramatics we pushed our bikes up the next steep section, until once on the level ridge we could ride reasonably safely again. We stopped at the gate, which wasn’t actually locked at this time, but we knew we needed the owner’s permission to proceed further. So we had a quick drink and biscuit and before heading back noting from the map that we were actually further north than Welly—in fact almost as far north as Levin. And the return ride was easy enough and we made it back to our lodgings just before dark.

Our last day on the island was a very easy one once we cleaned and tidied the centre—an out-and-back trip along the road towards Kupe Bay where there is still a small but viable farming area. The weather was now fine and calm and again the riding easy-as. Then down to the jetty and the water-taxi back to French Pass where we sat in the shade of a weather-beaten pohutukawa tree for a late lunch before starting on the drive to Hanmer Springs and the old St James Station.

Paul had ridden part of the St James Cycleway in bad weather and before DOC had done any real work on the trail but had seen enough to know it should be a great day out in good conditions. So on the Tuesday with the morning weather perfect but forecast to deteriorate during the day we decided anyway it was time to go.

We left the Lake Tennyson Road end early and headed up the easy climb to Maling Pass with its wonderful view down into the Waiau Valley and its big snowy mountains each side. The road surface at the start of the descent was tricky and slow but improved further down to a fast and easy smooth gravel 4WD track. Once in the valley beyond the vehicle track DOC had benched and graded a wonderful trail on the true left which crossed big grassy flats, contoured around small bluffs, and climbed over river-side cliffs. And all the while it was easy enough to be able to look around at the amazing scenery gliding by.

We both loved it—the increasing wind at our backs, a bright blue sky with wispy cirrus clouds, snowy mountains—Faerie Queen, Una, Enid, Humbolt, and many others—the varied riding on grass, rocks, stream beds, uphill, flat, downhill—it had everything.

Then the approach to the first of the two new bridges over the Waiau was a very tricky descent—Paul made it but it didn’t look easy. I nearly made it then the front wheel dropped sideways off a rock and over the steep edge I went. The somersaults thankfully ended when I hit two matagouri trees. I don’t usually like these things but gave each a friendly wee thank-you pat before extricating myself and then patching the areas of missing skin with pieces of my spare polypro top as to save weight we had left the first aid behind.

The next section was a remarkable climbing sidle high above the river benched into the steep hillside by DOC just for MTB’ers. A wobbly descent the other side led to the fastest section of grassy flats especially now the wind was getting stronger. The trail crosses back to the true left on a second new bridge not far above the Edwards Valley where we stopped outside Scotties Hut for a late lunch.

There was a good 4WD track up the Edwards and with a tail wind the climb was barely noticeable. We raced up the valley, grunted up the short steep climb to the final saddle and then raced down the other side on a n especially prepared DOC track built very recently for MTB’ers.

With big grins we were back at St James. What a hoot—6 hours, 70 kms, fantastic scenery, fast MTB, tricky MTB, 4WD tracks, grassy flats, steep uphills and steep downhills, bumpy stream crossings and a few short bike carries for a change in pace—what else could a couple of MTB’ers possibly ask for? Try it sometime!

The benched sidle above the Waiau gorge built by DOC especially for MTB’ers Starting down the Waiau Valley. Maling Pass top right Fast and easy riding down the Waiau Heading up the Edwards Valley with a strong tailwind